September 09, 2008

The Game Before the Games

Ever wonder how a university with stringent entrance requirements fields a success football team? Take a look at California, where 95% if the freshman football players on scholarship in 2004 were special admits, according to a study by Mark Alesia of the Indianapolis Star.

When you compare the Jeff Tedford's team to the general student body, the number is stunning. Only 2% of the student body gained entrance as special admits.

California is not alone. At Texas A&M in 2004, the number was 94% compared to 8%. At Oklahoma in 2002, the number was 81% to 2%. Check out the chart of 31 universities that responded to the Star's request for data.

The findings even appear to have thrown NCAA president Myles Brand for a loss. Asked whether an entire football recruiting class of special admits would be OK, with appropriate help, he replied, "I suppose that's a logical possibility, but that doesn't sound like a reasonable way to proceed."

Former Indiana, Louisiana State and Vanderbilt coach Gerry DiNardo told the story about getting a player with a 710 SAT into Vanderbilt, a highly selective private school.

"No way an average student gets admitted to Vanderbilt with a 710 SAT," said DiNardo, now a commentator for the Big Ten Network. "I had letters from the coach and teacher saying he never missed a day of class. He was admitted, he was one of our better players and he graduated. That's the way the process is supposed to work."

While Georgia's numbers look particularly shameful (And LSU's, and Kentucky's), Overall they actually seem pretty low. Hell, Florida, the only SEC school in US News and World Report, actually has the third lowest numbers on the chart, behind only Georgia Tech and another SEC school (Auburn).

California's numbers are horrendous, so are Texas A&M's and Oklahoma, as are the afformentioned Georgia's.

So Cal's ranked #21 and only five BCS schools are ranked ahead of it, Duke, Northwestern, Stanford, ND and Vanderbilt, none of which responded to this report. Cal is the top University in the UC system and by far the hardest to gain admission to. A minimum 700 SAT and 2.0 GPA (Prop 48 minimums) are not going to be admitted without "Special Admit" but would pass as normal admission standards at some state schools.

With so many schools not responding or not even asked to respond, (USC, UCLA, Notre Dame, Penn St.) what does this prove?

There's also no data normalization based on entry requirements. I doubt Alabama's entry requirements are as high as Cal's, or even Georgia's for that matter. It's easier for dumb kids to get into these schools without special entry than others. Misleading stats.